COGWA Members App
Feast App
ROKU AppThe Money Mess
Written by Graemme Marshall
God’s basic financial principles are simple (though not always easy). If they were followed, this world wouldn’t be in such a mess. Why are leaders so blind?
Why does it seem people are so confused about money?
This last year saw an economic roller-coaster ride featuring heavily indebted countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and the United States. Desperate pleas for financial bailouts sent Europe into a flurry of negotiations to stave off worldwide economic collapse.
Yet you and I know the consequences if we don’t pay our bills (Proverbs 22:7).
In the same way, if a country is insolvent and bankrupt, it cannot go on as if it isn’t. But when it comes to the political leadership, human beings seem to be blind about spending vast sums of other people’s money and burdening future generations with unbearable debt.
It makes me think of Jeremiah’s prophecy: “Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged” (Jeremiah 51:7, emphasis added throughout).
The end-time Babylonian system has many sins and temptations, but a major problem seems to be materialism and greed (see Revelation 18). In modern language this could describe the effect of today’s Wall Street bad investments, Ponzi schemes, abused wealth and fraudulent riches. Leadership actions too often seem deranged by inordinate greed.
False values without knowledge of God
Not knowing God, humanity is unable to understand godly financial principles because we are plagued by selfish, false values, such as:
- The end justifies the means.
- Get what you can while the getting is good.
- Might makes right.
- It’s a dog-eat-dog world.
- Look out for No. 1.
- Do whatever you have to do, and let others argue whether it’s right or not.
Why does man follow wrong values?
The Bible reveals fundamental flaws in humanity. We want the benefits that would come from obeying God’s laws, but we seek those benefits by doing the opposite! We think selfish disobedience—which automatically produces pain and suffering—will somehow produce good results.
Humanity can notice many things, but we seem blind to our own condition. Jesus Christ, the Creator of mankind (Ephesians 3:9), said, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times” (Matthew 16:2-3).
Man can often see the obvious but cannot, or will not, relate it to the consequences of his behavior. Pursuing a “greed is good” economic philosophy has brought much sorrow to investors: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10).
Disobeying God’s law has brought confusion. The Bible says a penalty for disobedience will be “madness and blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways” (Deuteronomy 28:28-29).
How aptly this illustrates leaders today, groping for economic solutions yet unable to find them.
God’s way works
God’s financial principles are the opposite of man’s greedy pursuit for wealth and riches through lying, cheating and stealing (which break the Ten Commandments). God’s way teaches hard work, saving for the future, giving to the poor and giving back to the God who gave us everything.
Although God is not against wealth and prosperity used rightly (Genesis 17:6; 3 John 2), He says storing up “treasures in heaven” is more important than any physical things we can amass in this world (Matthew 6:19-21). In fact, we have assurance He knows our monetary needs even before we ask (Matthew 6:8). In this section of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus also shows that we need not have unnecessary worry.
When you make a life turnaround to obey God’s financial laws, you’ll find a peace and contentment in serving the higher values of God.
As you learn more about God’s plan, you will be astonished—economically and spiritually.
Graemme Marshall has served the Church in both Australasia and Canada. He loves the Canadian wilderness and currently pastors the Toronto, Ontario, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.
For more about money and financial management on the global and family level, see:
